The Fluke Doctrine

Sandra Fluke, the champion of free birth control for women, has reached a new low in her quest to shame the American public into believing that when it comes to promiscuity and sex, employers with well-formed consciences are badly in need of government intervention.

In addition, Fluke has a serious problem with religious freedom if the expression of that freedom interferes with her heart’s desire—free birth control.

But who exactly is this woman?

Nobody knew who she was until February of 2012 when Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and her colleagues on the House Steering Committee held a special hearing concerning the religious exemption on contraceptive coverage contained in the then-newly introduced Obama mandate.

The only person called to testify at this hearing was Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke. This was to be the first time we would hear her name, but it certainly was not to be the last.

Fluke became the instant darling of feminists and the liberal media. Her unapologetic attack on people of faith who object to the Obama birth control mandate made her immediately welcome. And even though she is a Protestant, she claimed to speak for Catholics as well, saying during her testimony that it was important that “Catholic students have access to contraceptive coverage under the preventive care package of the Affordable Care Act.”

In her testimony she said, “I attend a Jesuit law school that does not provide contraception coverage in its student health plan. Just as we students have faced financial, emotional, and medical burdens as a result, employees at religiously affiliated hospitals and universities across the country have suffered similar burdens.”

Fluke made it clear that the government should require that birth control coverage be provided regardless of religious tenets or moral objections to the use of birth control.

From the first news report about her comments nobody bothered to inquire how it was that Fluke had become an instant authority on the alleged burdens females were facing because they could not have free birth control. The fix was in and the media were happy to accommodate.

Last fall, Fluke appeared with President Obama for the first time during a campaign rally in Denver, assuring the audience that Obama was the man who understood what women need.

The Washington Post, in a report entitled “No Fluke: Obama Needs Colorado’s Women Voters,” explained that Fluke is a necessary component for the emphasis Obama wished to place on his contraceptive mandate as being a positive action for women—one that separated him from his opponent.

To this day, Fluke continues to be the female face of Obama’s quest to make sure that taxpayers provide birth control to any woman who wants it and cannot pay for it. So it is no surprise that last Friday when the Obama administration released its revised rule Fluke was on hand delivering her kooky insights once again.

Appearing on MSNBC, Fluke spoke about employers who have religious objections to providing birth control coverage, telling the audience, “Now if you take a step back and think about that, that’s—you know, you work at a restaurant, you work at a store, and your boss is able to deny you leukemia coverage, or contraception coverage, or blood transfusions, or any number of medical concerns that someone might have a religious objection to. So the folks who are still objecting have some very extreme ideas about religious freedom and employee healthcare in this country.”

Extreme? Who exactly do you think is extreme? Is it an employer who does not want to violate his conscience by being forced to subsidize birth control coverage to his employees or a woman who compares free birth control with insurance coverage for a serious disease like leukemia?

In Fluke’s world there are no moral absolutes; there is no place for religious liberty or conscience protection if it interferes with access to free birth control.